Seven Years
by LaurTheDerp
Summary: Coraline Jones is now 18 years old, and once again, her life is about to change, when an old enemy returns from that cursed, little door.
1. Catching Up

It's been seven years since that day. Seven years since I opened that little door, only to risk my life to save my parents and the children. In the past seven years, a lot has happened.

My mom and dad opened up a flower shop, along with continuing their catalog, so we've been getting some money. Miss Spink and Forcible are still alive on the bottom floor, but there are more dogs on the wall dressed as angels, and new slobbering dogs in my face whenever I visit. Bobinsky is now doing his mouse circus tour in Russia, but that's all I know.

Then there's Wybie; Wybie is nineteen now, and works at a pizza place downtown. Whenever I order a pizza, he gives me half price, I'm surprised he hasn't been caught yet. Wybie and I have been dating since I was fourteen, and we're still very happy. I don't regret meeting him, but I do regret calling him a stalker years back.

Oh yeah! And the cat; he is now adopted into my home, his name is Noir (French for 'black'), and was confirmed to be nine years old when we did adopt him, according to the vet. He is now sixteen but still pretty healthy. It feels like just yesterday when he was able to talk like a human, but that was in the other world, and I didn't like to think about that. Ever.

I took medication for anxiety and paranoia ever since the incident, but they barely did anything to help. Typical. I was always afraid the door will open magically and the Other Mother would find me, and take me back to the world and sew the buttons. Just thinking about it made me physically ill. But no, the door was still locked shut.

It was now February, the month all this happened. I always got queasy that time of year. I usually would stay away from the living room entirely. My mother noticed and took me to a therapist just a few days later.

The waiting room smelled of old paper and wood, with the colors of mango walls and wooden floors. The chairs were super comfortable at least, they almost made me sleep, but I didn't, instead my mother patted my knee twice when the therapist called my name.

"Coraline? I'm ready to see you."


	2. The Therapist

The room had dim lights, and a very comfy red sofa. As for the therapist, she was actually rather young, possibly about in her early thirties. She had big glasses, and very puffy, blonde hair. Her name was Mary.

It was quiet for a few minutes, before she started to tap her pencil impatiently on her notepad.

"So, Coraline," She started, "Can you tell me your situation?"

My heart was getting faster, and my breathing was quivered. She was never going to believe me, nobody would, except for Wybie. It took me a few seconds, before taking a deep breath, and started to explain what was making me this way. I started from the way beginning, from moving here, to the key and the hand going down the well.

All the way through her face changed emotion as I got further into the incident, she really smirked when I mentioned the jumping mouse circus and the garden, she thought it was " _cute"_.

 _ **It isn't cute when you have to go back and get chased and attacked by rats, bat dogs, and a giant praying mantis bot, not only that but a spider woman who I needed to defeat in order to live normal,**_ I thought.

When I got to the well, I began to mention Wybie, that's when she asked a question.

"So, there's another person who knows about this… world?" Mary asked while she was writing down my non-fiction tale.

"Yes," I said, "My boyfriend, Wybie. He was twelve at the time. He almost fell down the well, but luckily he got out and crushed the hand with a rock…"

"A rock," She replied dully, writing down some more.

"Yes, a decent sized rock, that's when we threw the key into the well inside the blanket along with the hand and rock."

Mary soon saw me shaking on the couch, mostly my right leg bouncing up and down, that's what I do when I'm either anxious, bored or just feeling awkward.

It got quiet again, and I looked at Mary, who was looking at me very with a very worried expression. She _was_ a therapist, and they get _worried_ about their patients too, which I forgot for a second. It was quiet some more, until I opened my mouth with a shiver in my jaw.

"...I-I can still hear those last few words… b-before I closed that door…"

"What were the words?" She asked, looking at me like I was a little bit crazy.

" _D-don't leave me… don't l-leave me… I'll die without y-you…"_ I said in a weak voice. She raised a brow, and wrote on her notepad the rest of what I had to tell her. I was on the verge of tears and an anxiety attack.

"I don't want the door to open again… it happened in this month.. I'm afraid she'll come get me.."

Mary sighed, "If the door's been closed for seven years, Coraline, it might never open again, you did throw away the key, yes?"

"Y-yes ma'am.. I just.. I get scared."

"This… Other Mother," Mary said using her fingers to quote unquote, "probably gave up trying to get to you, it has been seven years."

"T-that or she actually did die.. W-without me.."

Once again, it got quiet. The atmosphere got cold and super awkward. Mary looked around, thinking of what to say. I sat in a ball now, a ball of anxiety is what I was at that point.

"You know what, Coraline?" She said, "Maybe you should get out of the house for a bit every day, to relax your mind, and keep it off what keeps triggering your nervous breakdowns, and come back in a month and let me know if it works, okay?"

I didn't know whether to be mad or glad she actually gave me advice. I nodded and headed out after saying my goodbyes.

In the car, it was quiet, it always was. Mom and I barely had a conversation in the car on the way home, so I usually listened to music on my iPhone.

"How did it go?" Asked my mom.

"It was okay, gave me some advice." I replied.

"Like what?"

"She said to get out the house a little bit every day to clear my mind, it's supposed to help calm me down."

"The meds don't work, huh?" Asked my mother in a dull voice.

"Nope, don't even know why I even got prescribed by that weird doctor…" I looked at my mother, then to my legs, ever since I took those meds, my thighs got really wide, "it made me gain weight, too!"

"A lot of medications do that oddly enough. Not sure why."

"I don't get how medication solves everything apparently." I said.

"Sometimes they do."

"Yeah, once in a lifetime probably." I chuckled. I saw a smirk by my mother in the corner of my eye. I looked out the window and saw the trees that had no leaves passing by. The more I looked, the more they started to change. The trees started having five branches, in the shape of a hand. I felt my anxiety drown my mind and I looked down all the way home.

 _ **It's always something that reminds me of her,**_ I thought to myself, before putting on my music once more.

When we got home, I headed straight for my room. When I'm stressed, I always go to my room to either play video games, read, or talk to Wybie on the phone, which barely happens since he comes over a lot.

When I got to my room I did three things; turn on the TV, change into my favorite yellow tanktop and fluffy pajama pants, and pull out a book. When I read I usually love background noise, it makes it more lively in my room. I now had a queen sized bed, and I had a habit of staying on the left side, even when I didn't really pay attention when getting on the bed, I was always on the left.

It was about an hour into reading when I heard a knock downstairs. I closed my book and hopped out of bed to check who it was.

It was Wybie.


End file.
